Hidden Trails

by Bonnie R. Paulson

  His office was equally as plush as the lobby, if not more so, with leather wing-backed chairs and a desk that stood over the office like a captain on the ship.

  She’d seen men like that in movies and at rodeos she went to with her cousins. Those kind of men were confident, powerful, and didn’t have any qualms with letting people know it.

  Stefanie sat across from Ronan and they both settled into their seats.

  He picked up a pen and looked at her. “So what can I do for you, Stefanie? Did Nate send you down here to get the final paperwork?”

  Her nerves hit her hard in her stomach. It was time. How was she going to be able to ask this man she didn’t know, when she couldn’t even ask her brother?

  She took a deep breath. Shoving her fingers under her thighs, she leaned forward. “Mr. James, I would really like to buy Bella Acres. I know I could do it. I just need to have someone back me. You could do that, right? Your bank does that kind of thing?”

  Ronan’s eyes lost a little bit of their sparkle. Disappointment softened the lines of his face. He put the pen down and folded his hands on his desk, cocking his head to the side. “Well, now, we need to consider some things first. I need to ask you a few questions. And you need to be completely honest. Do you have a job?”

  Stefanie shook her head, but she wouldn’t let that discourage her. “Not right now. But we get jobs all the time. I’m ranching with my cousins.”

  Ronan’s nostrils flared. He gave a short nod. “Alright, so you don’t have a steady job. The next question would be what are you planning to put down as a down payment?”

  Stefanie leaned back against the seat, as if he’d pushed her. “A down payment? Why do I have to have a down payment for my own house? How much are we talking? Like fifty dollars? I could come up with that.” She’d have to scrimp, but she might be able to in a week.

  “Well, Stefanie, you’re talking about buying a house from Nate. It wouldn’t be your house until you bought it. You would need to have a down payment for at least ten percent. It’s a pretty hefty number. Your parents’ land is not cheap. Even in this market. The fact that Nate’s behind on taxes so far tells you just how deep in debt things have really gotten.” He steepled his fingers together over the desk and pressed them to his lips for a moment.

  He considered her. “Tell you what.” He dropped his hands and picked up a piece of paper and a pencil. “What I might be able to do for you is make a list of what you’re going to need to do to make this work. I’m not saying no, I’m just saying no right now.”

  Ronan held up a hand when she dragged a sharp breath over her teeth. “You don’t have the money. That’s obvious. If you did have the money, Nate wouldn’t be selling his house. So, here’s what you need to do. You need a cosigner, someone with money, and or a job. As in not a job working for ranches, they don’t show enough. There’s not enough steady income in ranch handing for others.”

  He gave her a moment for that to sink in before continuing. “You guys are in and out of jobs because of the low ranch work available. You don’t have enough for me to take on good faith. I’m sorry it doesn’t work that way anymore. Get yourself a cosigner, get a down payment, come back and see me. And from what I understand, Nate needs money for his wife’s medical care. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to do the cosigning for you, not that he would be able to. For that, I’m really sorry.” Ronan stopped and looked at her. He really studied her.

  She felt his rejection to her toes. She didn’t want to hear the answer was no. She’d gone to the bank so certain she had what it took to get her home secured.

  She couldn’t even borrow a dollar. Not without a cosigner.

  Ten percent was going to be next to impossible. Stefanie sighed, “Okay. I see where you’re coming from. How long do I have? Do I have to have it done in four weeks when auction is or is there a different timeframe?”

  Ronan considered her, arching his eyebrow. “You know what? That’s a really great question. I have potential buyers coming in all the time. But I can hold them off for the next two weeks. I’ll give you until then.”

  How was she supposed to get the money together and a cosigner in two weeks? Who could do that? Numb because of the shock of the pretty much guaranteed rejection, Stefanie nodded slowly. “Okay. I can do that. I can do it in two weeks.”

  Ronan smiled politely. “Course you can. I have no doubt about it, Stefanie. You and Nate, you and your whole family, you’re all resourceful. I have no doubt that you can succeed at whatever you try to do.”

  He stood from his desk, moving around the side and approaching her. “I have a 9:30, so I’m going to see you to the door. You contact me at this number.” He handed her a small business card along with the notepad piece of paper he’d written her list on. “If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them for you or someone at the bank can help you. You bring that stuff into me and we’ll have something to talk about.”

  Accepting the papers, she nodded. Stefanie stood and fell into step behind him.

  She felt like a balloon had been poked in the side. Like her air billowed out around her.

  She didn’t have any hope left.

  No. Stefanie shook her head. She could do it. She had two weeks. Two weeks was like forever. So much could happen in the blink of an eye. Look at her parents. They died in less than a minute. She could buy her house.

  She straightened her shoulders and nodded again. “Thank you so much, Mr. James.” She reached out and shook his hand, just like her daddy taught her. “I’ll see you in two weeks.”

  “I’m looking forward to it.” Ronan opened the door, and let her out. He smiled again and looked past her shoulder. “Mr. Riddick, come on in.” Ronan turned back to his desk.

  Stefanie walked out his office door, passing the man she’d known her whole life as a plague on children.

  The pond owner smirked at Stefanie as he waited for her to leave. He murmured in a low voice, “I hope you enjoy my house a little bit longer. I’m going to bulldoze the whole place when I get you off there. It’s only a matter of time, Rourke.” He winked real slow at Stefanie, like he had a secret that she wasn’t going to find out. He walked past her into the office and closed Ronan James’s door behind him.

  Enjoy his house? Stupid man. She could do it. Two weeks? What else did she need to do? She had the list Mr. James had given her and that was all the ammunition she needed. She didn’t even need to overthink anything.

  Even as she fought against the depressing rejection and tried to keep her spirits up, Stefanie couldn’t deny the dimmer skyline when she reached her truck. As if sensing her doldrums, the birds weren’t chirping and no one smiled as she passed.

  Her eyebrows felt permanently pinched together and she couldn’t make herself smile. But she didn’t need a smile to succeed. She threw back her shoulders and climbed into the truck.

  Stefanie had a plan. She was going to put that plan into motion. But first she needed a break. She was so mad. Just for a second she had to get back at Riddick for being a jerk.

  She would go out to the old watering hole, the one on Riddick’s land. She’d sit on his land while he was in there trying to buy hers. Even though he probably wouldn’t know about her visit to his place, she couldn’t help feeling like she would be just a little vindicated.

  You don’t mess with a Rourke.

  Chapter 6

  Drake

  Drake stormed through the Rourke house. The thudding and thunder from his boots echoed across the empty interior. Lacking any décor or rugs on the walls and floors, his movements were even more amplified.

  The silence only made him angrier. Trading verbal missiles with Stefanie in the hallway that morning had only stirred his blood. Plus, the silence reminded him of the sickness eating at his sister.

  He shook off the sad thoughts of Emma and focused again on the riling mental processes about the middle Rourke.

  Where was she? What was Stefanie doing? She was up to something. />
  Mucking stalls his butt. He’d gone to the barn to help. He really did want to help her. He wanted to help all of them.

  Not Nate anymore though.

  Drake wanted to help his sister. Emma deserved that.

  Speaking of his sister, Emma’s weak voice called him from the living room. Her soft tone had to work its way through the pounding of his boots. “Drake, can you come in here?”

  Drake shook his head. He was making enough ruckus to be a bull at the next rodeo. Bucking bronco Drake. Drake could hear the announcers now. Everyone screaming for him to get back to the arena.

  He edged into the living room. Nodding at his sister, he folded his arms and crossed his ankle over his other leg. “How’re you doing today, Emma?”

  She smiled knowingly at him. “Apparently, I’m doing better than you. You sound like you’re mad enough to eat nails. Plus, you would know how I’m doing, if you’d come in and see me once in a while.”

  Her cheeks had bright points of pink while the rest of her skin was starkly pale, like she’d pinched the apples of her cheeks before he’d come in there. Try as she might, she couldn’t hide her pallor or the limp shape to her hair.

  None of that mattered to her as she watched him, waiting for him to talk to her.

  He stood there, his arms crossed. As if he could outwait her.

  Course he couldn’t.

  He’d never been able to. The years he’d been gone had only made him worse at her games. That’s what happened with little practice.

  He finally dropped his arms to his sides. He looked away. “I never could win at that. Alright, I’m mad because I went out to help Stefanie muck the stalls, but she’s not here.” He avoided Emma’s gaze. There was a lot more he was irritated at, but he didn’t feel like yelling at her.

  He didn’t feel like talking to anybody about it. Not yet anyway.

  “Look, I know you’re upset. This is a lot to take in. I know you haven’t called yet. Do you think you could call Mom and Dad this afternoon? Go for a ride, take one of the horses, and think over how you’re going to address it, what you’re going to say. I really need you to do this, Drake. Please, you promised.” She wasn’t that weak when she was pleading for him to do something. Or guilting him. Like it gave her special powers.

  He had promised. He didn’t like being reminded of it. He hadn’t been on a horse ride in a long time. Uncle Will hadn’t had horses in Wyoming. “Alright, any horse will do?”

  “Sure. Just don’t take Nate’s horse. He seems to have an affinity for the brown one on the end.” Emma smiled and winked.

  Drake would be taking the brown one. A small amount of revenge would be more than enough to help him get on his road to coping with what his sister asked him to do.

  He inclined his head. “Alright, I’ll be back in a bit. Do you need anything?”

  She shook her head, trying not to let sadness overtake her peaceful expression. “I’m fine, thank you. Nate will be in soon to check on me. He always does.” She glanced out the window as if excusing Drake from the living room.

  Drake didn’t say anything. He knew better than to interfere with one of Emma’s moods.

  One time in the hospital, she’d only been about ten, Drake had been eight. She’d gone into one of her very few fits. She was trying so hard to be peaceful, to not cause any problems or complain. But Drake had pushed her. Pestering her and pushing and pushing, until finally she’d lost it.

  Her screaming had brought most of the nursing staff to her room.

  Drake hadn’t realized she’d been in so much pain. That’s what happened when you didn’t tell people you’re hurting. Emma was a professional at keeping her pain a secret.

  From then on, anytime she’d gone passively calm while dealing with her sickness, Drake had backed off.

  He didn’t even need to speak. He turned and left the room.

  Out in the barn, Drake found the brown mare. She was a beautiful horse that moved her ears when he entered her stall. A dusty, dark brown Stetson hung on the stall hook to the side of the door.

  The hat looked like it hadn’t been used in ages. He claimed it. He didn’t need to be on a horse without head protection. His blond hair was thick but the sun always burned him anyway.

  He whistled for the horse to tack her.

  ~~~

  The ride was more cathartic than Drake thought it would be. He hated when Emma was right. She seemed to be right a lot.

  Even the warm midmorning temperatures didn’t heat his anger any further.

  On the back of a horse with the small breeze whistling around him, Drake actually felt he was home.

  He hadn’t felt like that in a long time.

  It was an uncomfortable feeling.

  Drake had always associated home with his parents’ abandonment.

  Now, though, seeing his sister, everything was falling back into place.

  Seeing Stefanie. He’d always watched her in school, watched her as she’d always been more confident than any other girl in high school, any other girl in all of town or the county. She had had a confidence about her most women didn’t have.

  The last time he saw her had been at Riddick’s pond.

  Just thinking of that night, the last night, brought another wave of melancholy over him. Maybe Emma’s condition was contagious. Not the cancer of course. But her mood. Maybe Drake was set up to be defeated at every turn. Wouldn’t Emma get a kick out of his theory? That her mood was contagious. He chuckled at the thought.

  The urge to be in the place where he’d last seen Stefanie when things were simpler wiped the smirk from his face. Had the pond changed? Drake had tried so hard to get her attention that last night. He’d only succeeded in making himself look like an ass.

  The old watering hole was at the end of a trail, deep in the forest.

  Old Man Riddick never wandered there. He couldn’t do much with that land except keep control of the borders. Not too much further past the watering hole was the line of the Salish reservation. Riddick fought with Ole Blackhawk a long time ago. He stated that no matter what Blackhawk would never get that pond back – he didn’t care about its spiritual significance to the tribe’s people.

  His disregard for the Salish people brought out the rebellious nature of the local kids. For many years, most teenagers were more than happy to have their parties out at his place late at night.

  Riddick never stopped them. The parties didn’t hurt him, they hurt the Salish and the reverence they had for the area. Riddick was a jerk. He was lazy, too.

  A slow canter out helped with the rhythm of Drake’s anger. The pace slowed his adrenaline down, soothed his restlessness, and made him feel like maybe he wasn’t quite as angry at everything as he’d thought.

  He could look at his situation a little more clearly, even if it wasn’t with any objectivity.

  His sister was dying. Drake could face that. What he didn’t want to acknowledge was that he had to let her die.

  Not only that, but he had to stick up for her decision to give in.

  For the briefest moment, Drake had the inkling of how Nate felt. Emma had emasculated them both. Drake and Nate. She’d taken away their right to provide and protect her.

  That’s where Drake’s anger really came from. His sister was dying and he couldn’t do anything about it.

  Because she’d made him promise.

  What had she made Nate promise?

  The trees cast a shadow across his eyes, blocking the sun from his view. The drop in temperature between the sunny parts of a dry field and a shaded cool forest was enough to blow a chilly breeze across his neck. The soft touch of air pleased Drake.

  He whistled softly to the horse. “Yeah I can see why Nate likes you. You’re a sweet girl, aren’t you?”

  The watering hole should be just up ahead, if he remembered right.

  Drake ducked his head, a branch hanging low across his path. He pushed the next one out of the way with his arm. Passing the final trees, broug
ht him into view of the rest of the scene.

  The midmorning air shifted, cooler, reminding him of that night so many years ago. The watering hole seemed to have changed.

  The campfire still sat in its forever spot, marking the earth where boys and girls gathered to spend time together.

  Drake smiled softly, remembering that night among so many others where he’d watched Stefanie hang out with her friends and do nothing but be carefree girls. She’d never jumped in or done the skinny-dipping, even though he’d hoped she would. No, Stefanie was classier than most. She had more taste. Modesty was always her thing.

  He loved that about her.

  A small waterfall fed into the pond on the far end. The water came from a large crack in the rock.

  He took in the scene, the beautiful greens and browns mixed with the florals he’d missed in Wyoming with their sparse lands and scraped rocks.

  Movement to the right caught his eye.

  He turned, expecting to see deer or elk or maybe, knowing his luck, a bear. But that wasn’t the case. His luck might just be turning for the better.

  Stefanie glanced at him over her shoulder, her hair long and stark against the white of her shirt. With her knees drawn up to her chest, she sat on a boulder at the edge of the water. She didn’t react to his presence, but looked away from him as soon as she saw him see her.

  “Here we go, Drake.” He mumbled to himself. He nudged the horse closer. The soft clip-clop of the hooves on the moss and grass strewn rocks the only noise to compete with the gurgling of the water. He always seemed to have something to say to her everywhere else in the world and at any other time. But here, in this place, something about it roped and tied his tongue.

  He dismounted from the horse, glancing around for a place to tie her.

  Stefanie’s soft voice carried. “She won’t go anywhere. Just put her by some grass.”